Tagged | fishery management

In this edition of Fish Talk in the News, shellfish harvest areas reopen in Maine and Massachusetts; a legal advocacy group sues NOAA over fishery council records; the herring fishery considers bycatch; illegal fishing fears prompt a 2-tag plan for lobster traps; and the NEFMC meets next week. … More Info »

Around this time of year, people are eagerly thinking about the food that they will prepare for their Thanksgiving Day feast. While turkey has become the contemporary centerpiece of the holiday meal, it may be surprising to know that originally, a fish was served as one of the main dishes. … More Info »

Is New England’s fishery management system broken? It certainly seems so after last week, when the stakeholder body that designs and recommends plans and methodologies for managing our fisheries flagrantly ignored the direction of its parent agency, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), as well as the wishes of a large segment of the public that ultimately owns the resource. … More Info »

While there’s been progress to improve habitat in rivers, the threat in the oceans remains. That’s why our friends at Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and a coalition of grass-roots fishing and watershed groups filed a complaint in U.S. District Court on Feb. 10, seeking to reverse a federal government decision not to put blueback herring on the nation’s list of threatened species. … More Info »

In this week’s Fish Talk in the News, NEFMC released public hearing and comment summary documents for the OHA2 DEIS; Maine lawmakers proposed a $3 million bond for researching ocean acidification effects on shellfish; a New Hampshire bill looks to protect local fishermen; Baker administration announces new head of state Fish and Game; Maine DMR is proposing reallocating tribes’ elver quota; Maine manufacturers and environmentalists support a bill to ban microbeads; Red’s Best sustainable seafood will keep the fishing industry afloat; regional fishery management council leaders will meet in DC; ASMFC winter meeting was this week; GARFO released its final five-year strategic plan; the Northeast Regional Planning Body released its monthly update; and USDA is considering new guidelines for organic fish. … More Info »

I was having a bit of an out-of-the-body experience last week when the Council’s Science and Statistical Committee (SSC) re-thought setting the Acceptable BIOLOGICAL Catch (ABC) for the collapsed Gulf of Maine cod stock. Most of the debate was driven by economic issues, not biological issues. The discussion was focused mainly on identifying the various estimated economic impacts associated with various ABC levels. There was surprisingly little said about whether any catch of the collapsed cod population was acceptable. … More Info »

TalkingFish.org interviews Mike Palmer, Research Fisheries Biologist in the Population Dynamics Branch of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. In this post, Mike Palmer answers our questions about best available science and the challenges of conducting fish stock assessments. … More Info »

TalkingFish.org interviews Mike Palmer, Research Fisheries Biologist in the Population Dynamics Branch of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. In this post, Mike Palmer explains how uncertainty comes into play in stock assessments and how it is accounted for. … More Info »

To me, fisheries management often feels like looking across the Grand Canyon at the beckoning but unreachable other side. Everyone has a shared goal for management but no idea how to really make it happen or who should make it happen. In order to meet the demands of successful fisheries management, we need federal dollars invested in fisheries science. … More Info »

TalkingFish.org interviews Mike Palmer, Research Fisheries Biologist in the Population Dynamics Branch of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. In this post, Mike Palmer explains the basic steps to conduct a stock assessment and the role of models in stock assessments. … More Info »